How to Exercise Without Worrying About Your Blood Sugar

Exercising with diabetes can be a frustrating disaster. Worrying about going low and having to eat a ton of food, never even knowing exactly how much to eat. I’m sure you’ve even had the thought, “What’s the point of all this exercise if I just have to eat like a pig to do it!” Ugh! Right?!

No, wrong!

I’ve had type 1 diabetes for over 30 years. If I would have known what I’m about to tell you when I was a weight-obsessed teen, exercising all the time trying to stay slim, yet having to eat to keep from going low, this knowledge would have dramatically improved my life! In this article, you will learn how to exercise without having to eat and dramatically reduce any worry about going low. Truly.

Having to eat all the time when I played sports or went to the gym drove me crazy. I’d get frustrated because I wanted to drop a few pounds, but it seemed like I always had to eat more calories to avoid going low than I was even burning. I felt fat all the time. I developed an eating disorder. It was awful.

I have no idea why this life-changing information is not part of basic diabetes education. This fact makes me upset, given all the millions of you who I know are suffering like I was before I knew this simple and profound information you’re about to learn. I’m sure you’ve been taught that it’s too dangerous to exercise without eating. Understanding what I’m about to tell you, you’ll gain the wondrous freedom of knowing that does not have to be true.

Here’s how to workout without eating or going low:

1. Do Not Workout Within 4 Hours of a High-Carb Meal, Unless You Want to Eat Like a Horse and/or Go Low.

When you eat a high-carb meal, you have to take a big dose of fast-acting insulin. Well, fast-acting insulin works for up to 4 hours, so if you have a high-carb meal, make sure your workout is at least 4 hours later so you don’t have a lot of insulin in your body while you exercise. Insulin is what makes you go low, not exercise. (Read that line again!) I know it’s shocking but it’s true. Understanding that will change your life.

Having your basal rate/long-acting insulin dose set correctly is critical. If it’s too high, exercise will make you crash. This process requires a lot of detailed records. I help my patients do this every day. Although it’s a complex process and can take a few weeks, it is critical not only to avoid lows during exercise, but to establish the foundation for good blood sugars 24 hours a day.

If your background insulin is not set correctly, you will be constantly plagued by endless, frustrating, and unpredictable blood sugar levels.

3. The Less Insulin You Have in Your Body While You Exercise, the Better.

This tip combines the wisdom of #1 and #2 above. The million-dollar message here is, the less insulin you have on board while you exercise, the less likely you’ll go low.

Remember the day before you first were diagnosed? I can guarantee you that no matter how active you were, it was impossible for you to go low. Why? Because it’s not exercise alone that makes you go low. It’s insulin. Without excess insulin on board, you can’t go low. Exercise just makes your insulin more powerful. It makes it work faster and harder.

So if you must have some insulin on board, the further away the dose (thus the insulin is hopefully past its peak of power) plus the smaller the dose (thus the lower the momentum to make you go low), the lower your chance of going low.

I would have paid $100,000 or more to know this life-changing wisdom back in the day when I was a frustrated teen eating hundreds of calories during every workout! This is priceless, life-changing information that can make your life so much happier, healthier, and easier.

Now of course, I’m not saying to have no insulin on board. That would put you into DKA and I’m not suggesting that. You must always have some insulin on board. So the sweet spot that allows you to exercise like a normal, non-diabetic person is to only have your baseline need of insulin on board.

4. If You Need or Want to Eat Before Your Workout, Have Protein.

When I’m about to exercise, be it for 30 minutes or all day, I have a protein-based snack. Why? Because then I can enjoy some fuel without having to dose for it. Sure, I could eat some carbs and just reduce my dose for them but by how much? 25%? 50%? 73.92%?

Figuring that out causes more mental stress than it’s worth because as soon as you dose before exercise, you raise your chances of going low, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to worry about that while I’m having fun being active.

So what do I eat? A handful of nuts. Some turkey slices. A hard-boiled egg. Beef jerky. Chicken wrapped in lettuce. An avocado. Some tuna fish. Celery and almond butter. My famous no-carb flax muffin. (Don’t have the recipe? Email me! It’s delicious!)

You can happily eat any of these things before or during your workout without having to worry about dosing, thus enjoying the bliss of stable blood sugar while you’re being active. What a joy that only us awesome folks with diabetes can understand! Ahhh, yes!

5. Eat Low-Carb on a Daily Basis

Today’s standard recommendations taught by diabetes educators around the world is to count your carbs and dose. Well, I’m sorry to bear the bad news, but if you want good blood sugars, that approach does not work very well.

Meals digest at all different rates. But insulin only works at one slow rate. Trying to get the digestion of food and its associated rise in blood sugar to hit at the exact same time that your insulin is peaking is almost an impossible task. You’d have better luck winning the lottery!

Insulin is not a fast or precise tool for blood sugar regulation, but it’s the best we’ve got so far. (Yes, I’m counting the days until the bionic pancreas is a reality for us all! What a day of extraordinary celebration that will be!) But in the meantime, all we’ve got is “rapid-acting” (that term always makes me laugh) insulin.

So, please do not try to carve a rock if the only tool you have is a dull spoon. Translated into diabetes speak, that means eating a low-carb diet will dramatically help you enjoy better blood sugar levels. Low-carb choices allow you to take smaller doses. Smaller doses greatly reduce your risk of going low, especially of having one of those really bad lows, which can only be caused by a large dose of insulin.

By having less insulin in your body, not only during exercise but at any time of day, you’ll greatly reduce your chance of going low, at any time of day.

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So there you go! You now have the knowledge of one of the most valuable and priceless tools I wish every single person with diabetes knew. You now know how you can enjoy being active without having to eat a ton of food or worry about going low. The value held in this information is priceless!

For this to be your new reality though, you must have your long-acting dose set correctly. And know how to eat low-carb 80% of the time. And have the knowledge for how to dose your fast-acting insulin properly. Please reach out to your healthcare team to have them help you with all of this.

Here’s to enjoying much more stable blood sugars without having to eat a ton or deal with lows, while having fun being active!

Dr. Jody Stanislaw received her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine in 2007. She is a Certified Diabetes Educator, Type 1 Diabetes Specialist, and a founding board member of the Low Carb Diabetes Association. Having lived with type 1 diabetes since the age of seven, she has dedicated her career to helping others with type 1. From her 30+ years of experience, she teaches life-changing information about how to successfully manage type 1 that most physicians have never learned, and the millions struggling with type 1 desperately need to know.Patients from over thirty states and ten countries have worked with her via her virtual practice. Yet there are millions around the world still struggling. To tackle this gap, she will soon be launching the first-ever, type 1 diabetes virtual training course, with the goal of improving the lives of millions of type 1’s around the world.For more info on Dr. Jody Stanislaw and to learn about working with her virtually, visit: www.DrJodyND.com